While accountability and appropriate use of public resources should always be a factor in policy decisions, a service such as Mental Health Skill Building must be designed based upon the population it is intended to target.  Since, clearly this is a service for people with Serious Mental Illness, then eligibility should be based on providing access to people who meet that criteria and the length of authorized treatment should be based upon a realistic understanding of the length of time a person disabled by mental illness may need receive services.  Therefore, restricting access to people who have not been hospitalized but meet the clinical criteria restricts access to services for the targeted populations.  Creating an artificial timeline that restricts re-authorization for services that someone may appropriately need over an extended periood of time is another example of restricting access to those who need the service the most.